Tourist in Turkey jailed after buying rock

A British businessman has been thrown into a Turkish jail accused of trying to smuggle an ancient artefact.

Paul Cleasby, 43, says he bought the ornately-carved rock from a street trader for £13 while on holiday in Antalya.

But as he arrived to board his flight back to the UK, he was arrested by customs officers. Archaeologists who later examined the rock said it could have been removed from the Greek and Roman ruins near Antalya, on the Mediterranean, which date from 200-500AD.

Mr Cleasby, whose firm Abbeyhorn makes carvings from horn and sells to Harrods among other customers, has been charged with smuggling. He now shares a cell with 16 other prisoners as his family fight to get him released.

They say Mr Cleasby was 'simply buying a pretty rock' for the garden at his home in Windermere, in the Lake District.

Tracey Harris, office manager at Abbeyhorn, said Mr Cleasby spotted the ornate rock while on holiday last month with his German girlfriend Sophie Zang.

She added: 'He bought it from a street trader for 20 euros, thinking it would look nice in his garden.

'But unfortunately he paid cash and did not get a receipt, and it has landed him in a lot of trouble.

'At the airport he put the rock on the conveyor belt with his hand luggage and was promptly arrested.'

Miss Harris said she had spoken to Mr Cleasby twice before his mobile phone was confiscated and he told her he was 'extremely concerned'. She went on: 'However, Paul's very good at putting on a brave face and I think even if he was very scared he wouldn't have said so.

'I'm just surprised that the authorities can't see the rock for what it is.'

She said Miss Zang had been arrested along with Mr Cleasby, but was later released and allowed to return to Germany.

Mr Cleasby's sister, Vanda Whitton, said he had been refused bail and was now hoping for an early trial date. If convicted he could face ten years' jail. His family has paid £200 into a prison bank account to enable him to buy food because he is not allowed to use his own cash or credit cards.

Mrs Whitton said: 'We have been patient and gone through the embassy and things are happening, but it's slower over there.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'People need to be aware that the smuggling of antiquities is a serious offence in Turkey, whether done innocently or not.

Visitors need to know exactly what they are buying.'

The Abbeyhorn company was founded in 1749, making shoe horns, walking sticks, kitchenware and other products from animal horns.

Mr Cleasby bought the firm in 1991 and has since established a large customer base exporting to Japan and the U.S.